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少林

Mandarin · pinyin Shào lín

the Shaolin monastery and martial arts school

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Characters in this entry

少: shǎo · few, less, inadequate
林: lín · forest, grove; surname

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–2 · Shao4 lin2

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

siu3 lam4

Cantonese word readings for 少林. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

name

Shaolin

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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